the unknown space

chapter 8 (Karen's pov)

What was wrong with him? He had become bossy and treated me like his pet, the little son of a- Calm down, Karen. He was injured plus his eyes. . . They've been red ever since he saw the monster, I wonder if they also change his personality. Still. He has no reason to act the way he is.

"I'm sorry if I'm worrying you Dart, it's just I'm really worried about Evander, but I'm also so mad at him! Ya know?" Dart looked me in the eyes and squeaked. "I still can't believe he kicked you," I said angrily, "I mean I don't want to sound selfish or mean but it's just the way Evander has been acting, he caused me so much pain. I was kinda glad to rip that claw out of him just to get him back..." Dart nudged my foot squeaking again. "I know, I sound terrible but it's true!" I defended myself.

I looked around at the gray walls, I had been walking for a while since Evander fainted, I patched him up and he is resting now.. I had to find water or food or something. I listened and faintly thought I could hear a small trickling. A river? Could it be? It's not impossible, not this far underground. I followed the sound into a large room. The ceiling was very high up, we must have been under a mountain. To the side of the room I saw the river flowing down from a narrow passage in the wall. There were lights hanging on the walls, illuminating the room. On the wall opposite the side of the river I could see some sort of messy writing. It was written in red and at first I could hardly tell it was English.

It read:

Beware! For this river may heal but also brings great peril. Run while you can or lose your chance to escape.

"It can heal?" I looked at Dart who was almost about to drink from the river. I stopped him before he could. "You can't drink it, but we can use it to heal Evander." I was completely ignoring the fact that the sign was also a warning. All I was thinking about was how we could use the river instead of the harm it could cause. "Dart, can you look around the cave and find something we could use to carry water in?" I asked the lizard. He squeaked and ran off into a pile of rocks, out of my view. I waited for a minute and then saw Dart come out rock, dragging a rock around the same size as him. "That's very nice," I said looking at the rock, "But it's round and can't hold any water."

Dart looked at me and then back at the rock. I saw him start to glow a light green color and then he opened his mouth spitting acid onto the rock. The middle of the rock caved in making a bowl. "Huh, that will work," I said, giving Dart a little pat. I picked up the bowl and walked to the side of the river. The water swirled darkly and I couldn't tell how deep it went. I put the bowl into the water washing it off for a second before filling it and standing back up with the bowl full. We walked back down the passage to the room with the monster where Evander lay still unconscious. "I wonder if I put the water on his wound or does he have to drink it?" I thought outloud to dart.

Guess I'll find out, I thought of pouring a bit of water onto the wound, making sure to leave some for him to drink in case it didn't work. I stepped back and watched. At first, nothing happened. Then I saw Evander slowly open his eyes, they were back to green. That's a start. "Evander?" I asked gently.

"Yeah?" His voice was raspy but didn't contain any of its previous spite.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

"I. . . don't know. My chest feels like it should sting but it's more numb than anything." Evander said in a raspy voice. I was about to tell him about the river when he started to shift on his chest. I saw the blood that still dripped from the wound start to bubble, Evander questioned. "What the heck, what's happening? Why can't I feel my chest?" I looked back at Evander trying to keep my eyes level with his instead of the wound that was sewing itself back together.

"I was walking down one of the passages on the other side of the monster's door and found a river. There was a weird sentence on the wall that said the river could heal but may bring bad peril and you should escape while you can-" I stopped thinking for the first time about what I had read earlier. If the river water was actually healing Evander then had I just put us in more danger than we were in before? I worried.

"So you found a river all the way down here and after reading a weird warning, something decided to pour water into my wound that was already most likely infected without thinking that maybe you should wait for me to wake up first?"

"Umm. . .yes?"

Evander sighed, "I knew I was gonna die down here."

"H-hey! If I didn't pour the water on your wound, I doubt that you would be alive, or at least you would still be dying," I sighed, I started to pet Dart, stroking his silky scaly skin. "I missed you." I whispered.

"I never left," Evander said confused.

"But you did. You acted so differently from how you usually do it. . . it scared me," I said, looking at the ground avoiding Evander's gaze.

"How was I different?" Evander asked, he sincerely looked like he didn't know. I stared at him, nonplussed.

"You. . .acted like I was nobody, like I was your pet, you would say mean things and you threatened to kill me twice," I looked towards the monster's lifeless body. "You told me to kill that creature," I said quietly.

"I. . ." He looked at me shocked. "But why don't I remember this and why would I do that," he asked clearly upset.

"I have two theories," I started. "First, I know your physical strength increases when you use your power, does it change your personality at all?" I asked him.

"Yes, it does make me a bit more emotional but not to the point that I would do everything you said I did." Evander said with a confused look on his face.

"Well then I think it was the monster. There was a piece of its claw stuck in your chest-" I stopped as Evander turned very pale.

"That I do remember," he said weakly.

"Well," I paused for a moment, "I think that the claw infected you with some type of evil or something. The only thing is you had started acting a bit oddly before then."

"I think it was because of my power," Evander said. "I'm sorry. . ."

"I-it's-" I was going to say it was okay but it wasn't. "I forgive you but I want you to promise that you will avoid using your ability. Thank you for the apology. However, it doesn't fix everything you did and said." I said sadly.

"I understand, I can't fully control when my power happens just like you can't use your magic all that well. I will certainly try my best to control it when it happens." Evander said apologetically.

"Yeah ok. . . you rest easy now I don't know when your injury will completely heal." I said.

Evander responded. "I'll try but we need to keep moving. . ." I look to the ground, I nod. "Also the warning on the wall next to the river, it really worries me. I don't think either of us are ready for any more danger for at least another week. . ." Evander said.

"Just try not to think about it for now," I responded. A sudden wave of tiredness washed over me. It wasn't only Evander who needed rest. I lay down on the hard ground and found myself drifting off into sleep.